House Bill 875

If you are interested in sustainable food production, please educate yourself about House Bill 875. See http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875 for the full text.

'To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes. 'Bill # H.R.875

This affects you if you are a Food Production facility (defined as follows)

(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.

I don't see anything in the bill about the size of the farm, or the market it serves. Does this mean an end to farmer's markets?

Perhaps the level of reporting required will be no more onerous than that which is currently required for organic food production, but it does seem to favor the larger producer as opposed to a smaller one.